Reviews of the Water Industry

Three national reviews of the urban water sector were undertaken independently by different Commonwealth agencies in late 2010 and early 2011. All three examined the Queensland industry. LGAQ has responded to these reports by creating an industry-led program to examine regional collaboration on water services.

The first review was by Infrastructure Australia (IA) and recommended sweeping changes to the Queensland and NSW local government water industries but lacked broad analysis or consultation with the industry. A second report limited to smaller service providers (as part of a series of reviews by the National Water Commission) was more balanced but also lacked meaningful consultation with the Queensland industry. It too recommended the need for sweeping changes, including institutional reform of Queensland’s regional service

The third report based on an inquiry by the Productivity Commission (PC) was released in draft form for further consultation in April 2011 and a full response was collated by qldwater with a complementary response from LGAQ.

In general, the PC inquiry sought meaningful input from a broad range of stakeholders and was more thorough than the other reviews. It openly recognised the necessary diversity of water management approaches nationally. The report called for significant change to the Queensland regional industry and supported many of the changes that have occurred in SEQ:

"There is a strong case for undertaking aggregation of small water and wastewater utilities in regional areas of New South Wales and Queensland. The precise approach — including identification of affected councils and the preferred grouping of councils — should be assessed and determined by relevant State Governments, in consultation with Local Governments and affected communities. This process should consider the relative merits of alternative organisational structures, including:

  • county council
  • regional water corporation
  • regional alliance (or regional organisation of councils).

Reform of the Queensland industry has been a matter of industry discussion for some time, particularly following Local Government amalgamations in 07/08 and the seemingly unending SEQ institutional restructures.

In 2008 an Industry Taskforce convened by qldwater and LGAQ questioned wholesale restructure of the regional water sector and developed a list of 10 Principles as a foundation for any future changes.

The qldwater response to the Draft Report of the PC Inquiry is available below and focuses on errors in information provided about the Queensland industry and the need to acknowledge highly performing service providers across the state and only seek change where real cost benefit analysis has been undertaken with meaningful involvement of local government service providers. The full PC Draft Report can be accessed here

qldwater Response

qldwater Response to PC Inquiry Draft Report qldwater Response to PC Inquiry Draft Report - Release Date 23-May-2011: - (138KB)

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